Viñales on pole at Assen, Miller eighth

Maverick Viñales has continued his dominant weekend at Assen, clinching pole position for the Dutch TT.

Viñales’ recent performances have drawn scrutiny – finishing last at the Sachsenring seven days ago – but he’s surged back to form at the final round before MotoGP’s summer break.

After topping all three practice sessions, Viñales proceeded to get the job done in qualifying, his 1:31.814s a new lap record.

“I think actually, we worked since FP1,” said the Spaniard.

“I can be competitive, I can be fast, the biggest problem is when I don’t have grip I don’t have the ability to make a good set-up.

“Right now, I think overall, it was good. I’m very happy, the bike is working fantastic for sure, you know, coming with good races.

“I think today I could have been a little bit faster, because still you need to recover the feeling, but it is fantastic.

“I’m very happy about the work we did this weekend. Most of the practices I was first, I think tomorrow we have a good opportunity to fight for the podium and see where we are.”

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo made it a Monster Energy Yamaha one-two on the grid, falling just 0.071s short of his team-mate’s lap.

No other rider was within three tenths of Viñales.

Francesco Bagnaia gave Ducati a presence on the front row, with team-mate Jack Miller a little further back in eighth.

Among other notable results was last-start winner Marc Marquez, who qualified a career-worst 20th after crashing out.

The Honda star was seen limping on the broadcast, having suffered a frightening highside in Friday practice.

In Moto2, championship-leading Australian Remy Gardner will start from second, having qualified only behind Red Bull KTM Ajo team-mate Raul Fernandez.

Race day at the Dutch TT will start with Moto3 at 19:00 AEST (tonight), before Moto2 at 20:20 and MotoGP at 22:00.

Qualifying: MotoGP, Dutch TT

Note: Those 13th and below were knocked out in Q1.